Band of Misfits
by Armaina
Summary: The begining of a Pokemon journey for my trainer character Armaina, starting off in the Orange Islands.rnFirst chapter, so obviously no angst or anything happening here.rnyes the title is lame.. I'm not good at titles.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: 

These first few chapters were originally done quite a few years ago, and I've recently decided to re-read and revamp them for submission. So don't expect anything AMAZING from these first few chapters (the meat of the story, actually, doesn't happen until after she gets out of the Orange Islands) So for now, it will be a bit sappy and cutesy, but hey, my lead girl is only 11 years old.  
So, read what I have for now, and enjoy.

* * *

She raced around the house, Blaze trotting at her heels just inches away from tripping her, she got her things together to finally start her journey. Due to some problems the year before, she was unable to start her journey when she was 10, so now she was even more thrilled to at last do what she had been waiting anxiously for, for a year now. 

Her parents also helped in gathering her things, though still apprehensive about letting their only child go out on her own like this, but at the same time, just as excited about this as she was. She shoved item after item into her backpack, thinking of everything that she would need, that would fit anyway, into her pack. When she finally had made the conclusion that she had all that she needed packed away, she said her good-byes to her parents, and was going to start on her way.

"Armaina! The boat will depart in a half an hour, and from the port, I want you to go right to Prof. Ivy to get whatever it is you need for your journey…" Her mother hugged her teary eyed.

"Contact us every now and then, keep us up to date on how things are going." Her father hugged her as well.

Armaina smiled proudly.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine!" She reassured her parents enthusiastically. "Plus, with Blaze around, and I still get a starter pokémon, so they'll keep me safe."

"I'm sure sweetheart…"

Was all that her teary-eyed mother could say, as her good-byes were wrapped up and Armaina set off to catch her boat to get to the Island where Prof. Ivy lived.

After the hour long trip to Prof. Ivy's home, Armaina's excitement was almost uncontainable, and keeping herself calm was beginning to get hard, and was quite grateful when the trip ended. Within a few minutes of running, Armaina reached the home/lab of Prof. Ivy, and sharply rapped on the door, still wired with the day's excitement. The door was answered by one of Prof. Ivy's assistants.

"Oh, you must be the new pokémon trainer!"

Armaina smiled broadly.

"Mm Hmm." She nodded, as the assistant let her in.

"I'll tell Prof. Ivy you're here, justa second."

With that, the assistant disappeared through the door into another room. Within a few moments, Prof. Ivy's assistant returned.

"Come on in here." Not taking a moments hesitation, Armaina did so, waiting to officially start her journey.

Prof. Ivy turned away from what she was working on.

"Armaina, it's good to see you, ready to register and start your journey?"

Armaina nodded excitedly.

"Why else would I be here?"

Prof. Ivy smiled.

"Right."

Then turned to the computer to enter in her registration, as well as picking up a red item from off the table.

"Here, this is a pokédex, I just received some Prof. Oak. It'll give you information on the pokémon you've encountered, as well as help in our research."

Armaina took the pokédex, examining it.

"Cool."

Prof. Ivy noted Blaze.

"I'm, guessing he will be in your team."

"Yep." Her answer shortened by her preoccupation with her 'new toy'.

"Well, you'll need these then." With that, she handed Armaina six pokéballs. "Even Blaze will have to be contained in on of those at one point in time, to be considered as an official member of your team."

Armaina nodded, taking one of the balls and holding it up to Blaze.

"Yeah, I know, I've been learning as much as I can before I started my journey." As she spoke, Blaze let himself into the pokéball, thus being 'captured'.

"You know, even though you already have a pokémon in your team, you are still entitled to one of the starter pokémon if you want." Prof. Ivy motioned for Armaina to follow her, then stopped at a place with three pokéballs.

"Would you like a Squirtle, or a Bulbasuar?"

Armaina thought a moment.

"Uh… do you have a Charmander?" Armaina smiled hopefully, mainly wanting a Charmander because of its final form: Charizard. Prof. Ivy hesitated.

"Well… you already have a fire type…"

"I know… but I _really_ want a charmander… if you have one."

Prof. Ivy sighed, picking up on other pokéball.

"This one is a charmander, but it has a few problems… I got it from Prof. Oak, he said that it had been through 4 trainers, and not one of them could tame it, although it was sought after by all of those trainers."

"Sought after?" Armaina looked confused.

"This charmander is unlike any other charmander ever seen… it's skin has more golden tones in it than a normal charmander, not to mention it's over a foot bigger than other charmanders."

"Oh, cool!"

"Yeah, 'Cool' was just what the other trainers thought, only this charmander wouldn't heed them in the least, and in some of the cases, turned on the trainer. Although no one was severely injured by it, both Prof. Oak and I are baffled as to why it acts in such a manner. Prof. Oak had mentioned that when he first had it, and it was out among the other pokémon, it was perfectly fine, and didn't even act hostile to him. But something happened when the first trainer had it. It became very temperamental, and would get worse every time it was returned from another trainer. But, anyway, I hope you understand why I am skeptical to giving you this pokémon."

Armaina nodded.

"Yeah, I understand..."

Armaina contemplated all that she had heard, thinking that the charmander's problem was rooted in the actions of its previous trainers, how exactly, she had some ideas, but wasn't sure.

"Well, could I at least try? Maybe see what's wrong with it, and if I start to have any problems I'll send it back to you."

Prof. Ivy studied Armaina's face a moment, a face that was looking up at her with large pleading eyes. And after a moment's consideration, gave into the girl's request.

"Alright, but I don't think you'll be able to find out much of anything. But please make sure to contact me if there are any problems. It isn't good for such and inexperienced trainer to have such an unruly pokémon when just starting out."

Armaina smiled.

"Well, I have Blaze, and he's a pretty tough pokémon all on his own, so it's not like this charmander will be my only pokémon."

"That's true. Well, good luck on your journey. Oh! And here's a map of the islands, so you know where all the gyms, and inhabited Islands are."

Armaina accepted the map from Prof. Ivy.

"Thanks, a lot! Bye!" Armaina released Blaze from his new pokéball, then headed a bit hurriedly out the door.

"Can you believe it Blaze! We're on our way to conquering the leagues of the world!"

Armaina proclaimed, lifting her arms upward toward the sky… just as she was tripped by something.

"Ow…" Armaina fell fast, planting her face in the dirt and grass, skidding to a stop.

"What tha…"

Armaina looked back to see what tripped her, though; she wasn't sure at first what she saw. It was something small, and white, with read eyes… it looked like a caterpie… a white caterpie. Armaina moved her feet, and went over to see if it was all right, and tried to pick it up. The odd part was, it didn't seem as though it noticed her coming toward it, only until her hand touched it, at which point, it squirmed franticly in her grasp.

"Hey, hold still, I need to take you to the pokécenter, I don't wanna hurt you... again..." Armaina then reached over and took out one of the pokéballs she had and contained the caterpie in her grasp.

Armaina picked up the pokéball and looked at it a moment.

"Well… this wasn't exactly how I have imagined catching my first pokémon…" Blaze also looked equally confused. Since she needed to build up her team anyway, and a capterpies would be a nice addition, since butterfrees were actually quite useful pokémon.

After a few more moments of walking, Armaina and Blaze made it to their destination, the Pokécenter. "After I get all of you guys checked out, we'll start training, as well as capturing more pokémon, to better balance the team." Armaina explained to Blaze, as she entered the building. Armaina walked over to the counter.

"I need a check up for all of my pokémon." Nurse Joy smiled behind the counter.

"Alright then, if you'll just give me your pokéballs, I'll give them a complete check up."

Armaina nodded, returning Blaze to his pokéball, and handing them all to Nurse Joy.

As her pokémon were being given a check-up, Armaina took the time to contact her parents, and let them know how she was doing. Armaina sat down at a near-by Vid-Phone, and dialed in her home phone number. After a moment, her mother then answered the phone.

"Oh! Hello sweetheart! How have you been? Are you alright? Have you registered already? Do you have any new pokémon with you? Where are you headed off next?"

"Sheesh mom! I've only been gone for an hour or so, not much has happened. I did get some new pokémon though, a charmander from Prof. Ivy, and I caught a rather odd looking caterpie."

"Well, that's great! I'm guessing you'll be taking the next ride out to the nearest gym, am I right?"

Armaina nodded.

"Yeah, Not sure where to though yet, there are some gyms I can't battle in yet because I need water pokémon."

Over the com, there was an announcement, stating Armaina's pokémon were checked out, and ready to be returned.

"Hey mom, I have to get going now, but I'll keep you up to date!"

"Alright then. You take care now. I don't want to get a phone call from the hospital or police or anything."

Armaina smiled, reassuring her mom.

"Don't worry, I will." Then hung up the phone and went back to retrieve her pokémon.

Nurse Joy stood at the counter with a slightly concerned look on her face.

"So you're the one Prof. Ivy has decided to give the Charmander to?"

Armaina nodded.

"Yeah, I want to see what's wrong with it, and see if I can do anything."

"Well, first of all, it's a she. Though, I hope you know what you are doing, you're a new trainer, and that charmander can be quite a handful, so I've heard. And there's something else I need to tell you."

Armaina looked up at Nurse Joy, slightly confused.

"Your caterpie is blind… If you keep her, she would be very difficult to train. So if you want, you may leave her with me."

Armaina looked down at the pokéball containing her new caterpie. She wasn't sure if she would be able to train a blind caterpie, or really wanted to all that much… but leaving the caterpie would be rather petty. Maybe she could look at this as a challenge… and who knows, maybe this caterpie may have some special attributes, like those who are blind have exceptional hearing.

"No… I think I'll try to train it… uh, her… right?"

"Yes, the caterpie is a female as well. You certainly seem to be taking a lot on so early into your training. Just don't overdo it, it would be bad for you as well as your pokémon" Nurse Joy said sweetly, yet firmly.

"Yeah I know, but I can't help it, I just really feel like I need to take care of them... But, thank you for the advise, and giving my pokémon a checkup." She made a slight bow and smile, then excitedly turned on heel and left the pokémon center, to 'meet' her new pokémon, and start some real training.


	2. Chapter 2

Once outside, Armaina released all of her pokémon from their pokéballs, to greet the newcomers, as well as decide on names. The caterpie 'looked' around, it's odd feeler twitching, trying to get a sense of where she was. The charmander looked around as well curious and refreshed to be out side.. until she noticed Armaina. The look on the charmander's face suddenly darkened, getting a sort of 'not again…' look, and with a bit of a huff, turned away and curled up on the ground. Armaina looked at the charmander rather inquisitively, but realized, she should have expected such a reaction. So instead of trying to make the charmander feel like it was being forced into anything, she allowed her to brood, and turned her attention to the caterpie.

"Hey there, guess you'd like to know what's going on?" Armaina held out her arm, nudging the little bug so that she would crawl up her arm.

"Well anyway, I'm Armaina… and you'll need a name… hmm…" Armaina thought a moment, as the caterpie inched up and made itself comfortable on Armaina's shoulder.

"Hey, how about Monarch? Like the butterfly?" The caterpie thought a moment then gave its approval of the name. "Alright then, Monarch it is!"

Armaina turned back to the charmander, of which Blaze seemed to be having a lively 'conversation with. Since the charmander seemed more relaxed, Armaina figured now was a good time for introductions, and naming. Maybe this charmander wouldn't be so hard to raise after all?

"So how about a name for you?"

Armaina smiled, kneeling next to the charmander, who rather than greet Armaina with a friendly 'Char!', didn't even acknowledge Armaina's question, and instead, turned her back to her.

A look of disappointment crossed Armaina's face. "Hey, I'm just trying to make conversation here… and am trying to give you a name. Wait a second… how about Empress? You certainly seem like a royal, or ruler of some sort by the way you've been treating me."

The charmander just shrugged, not really paying attention. Blaze seemed as though he was trying to coax the charmander into opening up to Armaina with a few yaps, but to no help. Blaze turned to Armaina with a sort of 'I tired' look on his face.

"Well then, be that way. I'll still call you Empress though, because you need a name." To Armaina, calling a pokémon by their name was like calling a person 'Human', sort of ridiculous.

"You know, I'm not trying to make your life miserable, that's not what I want to do. I don't know what happened with the other trainers you had, but I'll bet that I'll never do whatever it was they did that made you so temperamental." Armaina stopped and pondered the awkwardness of her sentence.

Empress glanced over to give a sort of 'yeah right' look, before curling up again.

"Looks like I'm going to have my work cut out for me…" Armaina sighed as she looked over at Empress, then turned to Blaze, who made his way to her side.

"Wish I could figure out what happened to her to make her act like this, then maybe I could figure out how to help her…" Armaina stated this mostly to herself.. but for now, there was nothing she could do.

"Well, anyway, how about we start training, hmm?" Armaina turned to Monarch, who was still on her shoulder.

"And I'll need to figure out some type of system, so that I can let you know what's going on in a battle. Hmm… let me think…"

Armaina picked up Monarch off of her shoulder and set her on the ground.

"Now, I could probably just tell you from which direction something is coming from, and after a time, I'm sure you'll be able to sense things better, and probably be able to dodge attacks and such on your own."

"Riee!" Monarch acknowledged Armaina's statement, looking up in the direction of her voice.

"Now, I don't want you to go into any 'real' battles just yet, so I'm going to have you do a few practice drills with Blaze, to start building yourself up."

Armaina thought to herself, to think of some drills that Monarch could do that would benefit her, and help her with learning to battle even though she was blind.

"Ok, now… first Blaze will try to make a few tackle attacks at you, and I want you to try and dodge them. This will help you know what to hear, or feel for during battles, so that you know when to move, and where to move to."

Monarch nodded in affirmation though seemed slightly nervous, as Blaze padded up of Monarch.

"Now don't go too fast at first, Blaze, let Monarch get the hang of it, then speed it up."

Blaze nodded in confirmation taking a few steps back, and waited until Monarch was ready.

Armaina stepped back and watched as Monarch prepared herself for Blaze's attacks. Blaze went into a bit of a trot with a somewhat slow tackle attack. Still uncertain how to react, or what to be aware of, Monarch was hit by the attack, and fell back a few inches.

"Are you alright?"

Armaina started to go over to Monarch, but she got back up to try it again. The attack wasn't that hard, so it only knocked her down, no real injury caused. Armaina smiled at Monarch's enthusiasm.

"Alright then, let's see if you can get it this time."

Again Blaze 'charged' at Monarch, though, it became an encore of the last attempt. A third time Blaze 'attacked' Monarch… though, only to be stopped by Monarch's string shot. The thread caught around Blaze's legs and he tripped before reaching Monarch. Armaina laughed a little, not really expecting that to happen.

"Well, that wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but I guess it worked."

Blaze wasn't has thrilled as Armaina was, as he started to burn off the sticky 'webbing' off of his paws. Monarch wasn't sure all that had happened, but since she wasn't tackled, she was pretty proud of her 'innovative' idea.

"Well, even though that was an effective was of stopping a physical attack, it don't help you with an attack like water gun, or flame thrower. You'll have to be able to move to avoid those kind of attacks."

Though Monarch has slightly disappointed, she understood.

"So, let's start trying again."

By now, Blaze finally managed to get the last of Monarch's string shot off of his legs, and brought himself to his feet.

"You ready?" Armaina called out to Monarch, who nodded, as Blaze readied to attack again.

Just before Blaze was about to tackle Monarch again, there was a sound heard from above. Armaina looked up, just as a pidgey stooped down in an attempt to swipe Monarch for its meal. But before Armaina, or Blaze could intervene, Monarch had already heard wings of the attacking pidgey, dodging out of it's way, as well as firing a sting shot at it, just barely hitting the pidgey's tail feathers, causing it to fall to the ground. Armaina took the opportunity to put a new addition on her team.

She tossed the ball at the fallen pidgey, and with a few shakes, a fourth member was added to her team. Armaina walked over and picked up the pokéball.

"Well, looks like you learned how to time and dodge attacks, and we have a new member on our team. Like hitting two birds with one stone."

Armaina then paused a moment, realizing what she had just said.

"Uh... heh, no pun intended…" She gave a weird smile, as Blaze gave her a rather 'flat' look.

"Well, anyway, let's go get this new guy checked out, then we'll get back to training." Armaina looked over to where Empress was, but she had fallen asleep some time ago. Armaina gave a sigh as she returned Empress to her pokéball, then went over and picked up Monarch.

"Common, let's head back to the center." Armaina motioned for Blaze to follow her to the center.


	3. Chapter 3

At the center Armaina waited for Nurse Joy to get back with her new pidgey, which wasn't long.

"Well, your pidgey is just fine, and your pidgey is a boy."

"Ok, thank-you again."

"No problem."

Armaina took back the pokéball containing the newly caught pidgey.

"Well, looks like you won't be so outnumbered by girls, hun Blaze?"

"Growl!" Blaze barked his reply.

"So, how about we go greet our new member…"

Armaina then turned to Monarch who still rested in her shoulder.

"And feed him, so that he doesn't go after you again…"

"riee!" Monarch nodded rapidly.

Once outside Armaina released the pidgey from his pokéball. The pidgey looked around; figuring out where he was and who he was with. When he noticed the caterpie he had tried to catch earlier, he attempted to try and go after her again.

"WHOA! Wait a sec!"

Quickly Armaina pulled out some food for the pidgey, as well as putting Monarch out of the pidgey's sight. After pausing a moment to study the food, then finally dug in. Armaina sighed, glad that the conflict between the pidgey and Monarch would be over... well for the moment at least.

Armaina watched as the pidgey ate his food, as well getting out food for the rest of her team.

"Now let's see… you'll need a name. Hmm…"

Armaina thought of a good name for the pidgey.

"Well how about Cirocco?"

The pidgey looked up from his food, considering it a moment.

"Piddge!" he cooed, then returned to gorging himself.

"Well, that's great!"

Armaina watched her pokémon eat their food, then suddenly remembered Empress. She took out the pokéball, releasing Empress to join the rest of the pokémon with their dinners.

"Alright, now I know you won't listen to me, but you still gotta eat."

Armaina set down a bowl of food in front of Empress, who didn't really react to it right away. Turning her head she sniffed it a little then finally started to eat.

"Hey, don't eat too fast…" Armaina commented sarcastically at Empress's slow eating.

Once all her pokémon were given their meals, Armaina got some food for herself. Not a few minutes into her meal, she heard something not too far from where she was sitting. It sounded almost like some sort of trainer battle.

"Common Keith! You can get that rattata!"

Armaina got up from where she was sitting, though looking over her shoulder at her pokémon, to make sure that they were fine.

Upon passing a bush, Armaina saw just what she had expected, a trainer about her age was fighting, a wild rattata in fact. The trainer was shorter than she was, a girl, with black hair, done up in two partial buns, commanding a bubasaur, apparently by the name of Keith, to battle a rattata into submission.

"Use your tackle again!"

She apparently was a fairly new trainer too, since her bulbasaur was only using low-grade attacks, and she didn't really seem all too sure on how to handle the battle.

The bulbasaur's attack hit right on, and the rattata was tossed to the side.

"Alright! Now… let's see…"

The girl looked around, finally finding the empty pokéball.

"Ok!"

She tossed the ball at the tired rattata, catching it without too much trouble.

"YES! That's our first one!"

The girl jumped up and down picking up the ball.

"You see that Keith! This is the first step to starting an all-star team!"

She presented the ball to her partner.

"Bluba!"

Armaina still stood her ground watching, but not really sure whether to speak up or not. After a moment, she walked back to where her team was finishing their dinners. Armaina sat back down with her team, as the trainer and her bulbasaur walked into view out from the brush. The trainer paused a moment when she spotted Armaina and all of her pokémon out eating together, though what really got her attention was the oddly colored charmander. She decided to walk a little closer to see if the charmander was really a different color than normal, or if her eyes where just playing tricks on her.  
Armaina heard the girl coming closer to them and turned around. The girl stopped in her tracks looking a little embarrassed.

"Oh.. uh hi.. I just uh… wanted to get a closer look at your charmander, I've never seen one like it before. I'll go now if I'm interrupting anything."

"No it's alright. The charmander's name is Empress… which I named her because of her attitude."

Armaina smiled at the girl, who became a bit more at ease with Armaina's friendly attitude.

"Well, at any rate, my name's Armaina. And you?"

"Oh! My name's Samantha, and this is my bulbasaur, Keith, we just finished adding our first pokémon to the team, a Rattata."

Samantha said proudly, then looked over Armaina's group.

"You've got quite a group of pokémon. Have you been battling long?"

Armaina shook her head.

"No, just started today. I guess I just kinda got lucky though!" She laughed a little.

Samantha looked to Empress again; who wasn't paying attention to either of the trainers, then sat down next to Armaina, Keith sitting by her side.

"So how did you manage to get a charmander like that anyway? I hardly doubt they would allow a new trainer to start out with a pokémon like that."

Empress snorted as she heard Samantha ask the question, in a manner that suggested she may have heard such a question before. Armaina shrugged.

"No, I didn't start out with her, I just got her from Prof. Ivy, that's all. Apparently the charmander has had some trouble with former trainers, and wouldn't listen to any of them. Actually, I started out with Blaze here."

Armaina reached over and scratched her growlithe's ear. "He's been in my family for as long as I can remember, so I had some training experience way before I started."

Samantha queried Armaina again.

"So did you catch the rest of your team today, or what?"

Armaina nodded.

"Yeah, heh… tripped over Monarch, the little caterpie over there, and then I caught Cirocco, and surprisingly enough, it was Monarch who did most the work for catching Cirocco."

Samantha looked over at the Caterpie she had hardly noticed before, seeing that it was albino.

"A white caterpie! You just have all the luck don't you!"

Armaina laughed a little, though her expression was more unsure than confident She never was one to take more credit than what she really deserved, thus creating a bit of awkwardness for her. It certainly wasn't that big of a deal.

"Well, I guess you could say that, though it's really not that big a deal. 'Sides, Monarch is blind, which will make her very hard to train."

Samantha paused a moment, looking at the little caterpie.

"She's also kinda small too."

Monarch started to get a little defensive at the comment. Armaina looked down at the caterpie, and shrugged.

"That may be so, but you know, size isn't everything, in fact, it could even be a benefit, it would make it harder for other pokémon to hit her, because of her size."

Samantha thought about it a moment.

"Yeah I guess…. You know, even though you said you're just a new trainer, you certainly sound as though you've battle a lot longer than that."

Once again, Armaina laughed at the comment.

"No, I just had a lot of time to think about it. I'm always strategizing, and thinking of various scenarios and such. Actually, I wasn't able to start my pokémon training until I turned 11... so I had a year where I was really anxious and read up nearly everything on pokémon."

"... You're 11? Why didn't you start a year ago?" Samantha's expression flattened.  
"Err well, my parents are kinda... overprotective.. I had a hard enough time convincing them to let me go this year. I had to promise to call them as soon as I got to a phone, so that they'd know I was alright."

"Hmm.. I see... " Samantha had an almost 'sucks-for-you' expression on her face.

Suddenly, Samantha remembered the rattata that she had caught, than that she hadn't given it a name yet. She got out the pokéball that contained the rattata.

"You wanna help me give a name to the rattata I just caught?"

Armaina shrugged.

"Sure, why not?"

Samantha released the rattata, who stretched and looked about.

"So are you a boy rattata?"

Samantha asked, which the rattata vigorously shook its head to.

"Ok then, that means we need a girls name."

Armaina thought, though nothing interesting was coming to mind… well, any name that she wasn't already planning to use on her own pokémon.

"Violet?" She shrugged.

The rattata shook her head slightly.

"Well how about… um… Casey?"

Samantha suggested. The rattata thought a moment, then nodded.

"That's great." Samanatha smiled, picking up the rattata.

Samantha turned to Armaina.

"I'm going to go to the pokémon center to get Casey fixed up."

"Well, I was planning to go there myself anyway and spend the night there, as soon as my team was finished eating."

"Oh, ok then, well, I'll meet 'cha there!"

With that, Samantha stood up, carrying Casey to the center, Keith following not too far behind. Armaina looked over her troop. Most of them were finished, though Empress just took her sweet time.

"You know, even though I'm calling you Empress, doesn't mean I'm going to treat you like one."

Empress didn't even look up at Armaina, ignoring her entirely.

Armaina turned to the rest of her group.

"You guys all set?"

Each of them gave their own way of saying they were ready to get going, save Empress of course.

"Alright then, we're just going to the center to turn in for the night, that's all. We'll head off again in the morning."

The team acknowledged her statement, and worked together to get everything packed back up. Armaina turned back to Empress.

"I'd hurry up and eat if I were you, 'cus your food'll be packed up wither you finish it or not."

Empress glared at Armaina a moment, huffed, then finished off the rest of her food.

After things were set, Armaina and her team set off to the center. Since it wasn't that far away, Armaina didn't bother putting her team into their pokéballs, and let them walk with her to the center, so that they could enjoy being outside for a while longer. Of course, Empress trailed behind. Armaina walked into the center, where she saw Samantha getting ready for the night. Armaina walked over, followed by her team, and sat next to Samantha.

"So where are you headed to anyway?"

Samantha thought a moment, "Well, I'm not sure. No where in particular, since I don't have a real team built up anyway."

Armaina nodded.

"Ditto. I'm going to have to get some water pokémon before I can challenge two of the gyms. I could probably go to the gym on Navel Island… Though, I'd still have to train hard to get anywhere."

Samantha nodded in agreement.

"Hey, you wanna travel together? I know my parents are worried sick about me being alone and all, and we could help each other out." Samantha suggested brightly.

"Yeah, my parents are the same way." Armaina smiled, recalling when her parents 'sent her off' that day. "Well, I don't see why not, it makes sense to me. It'll even help with training."

Samantha was about to say something, when she saw Armaina's team was still out. "Aren't you going to put them back into their pokéballs?" "Huh?" Armaina looked back at her pokémon and shrugged. "I don't see why I should. I mean, they're all rather small, and they're not hurting anyone."

"Well, I guess so…" Samantha shrugged.

"Well, anyway, goodnight."

Samantha stated before, burying herself into her sleeping bag. Armaina finished setting out her sleeping bag, and took a look around to make sure her team was all right and settled, then climbed into her sleeping bag as well, letting Blaze snuggle up next to her like he would do at home, then slowly fell asleep.


End file.
